All about groundwater
By: Jackie Morales
What Is Groundwater?
What is groundwater?
Groundwater is the water held underground in the soil or in pores and crevices in rocks.
When water soaks through the ground it becomes groundwater.
Porosity vs. permeability
Porosity is the measure of how much of an aquifer by the absorption of water.
Permeability is the ability of a substance to pass through it. It effects the groundwater because if water cant go by then it won't be able to travel through the soil.
The water table
The zone of aeration is the region in the ground in which pore spaces are filled with air and sometimes, the zone of saturation is the area beneath the water table where all the pores spaces are completely filtered with water. The aquifer is the body of rocks that can contain or transmit groundwater while the water table is the zone below the surface, but above the zone of saturation where materials are moist. Aquiclude is the body of rocks or stratum of sediment that acts as a barrier to the flow of the groundwater.
Types of aquifers
There are two types of aquifers, confined aquifer and unconfined aquifer. The confined aquifer lies in between two different layers which have less permeable rocks and is filed with water. The unconfined aquifer is filled with permeable rocks and can receive water from the top of the surface.
Effects on depleting groundwater
It can cause many things such as
- Mini earthquakes
- Streams drying up
- Ground subsidence
- Human conflict
- Water table drops
- Drill deeper to get water
Groundwater in the United States
The main ways we pollute groundwater is by
- sewage leak
- oil spills
- landfills
- human/pet waste